Effect of wels catfish on a 2 acre water ?

[Tigger]

Does anyone have any experience of fishing a small mixed fishery that has been stocked with wels catfish ?

I'm curious of any impact that a dozen wels catfish will have on a 2 acre water ?

The cats were illegally introduced as kittens about 3yrs ago and one or two have been caught recently over 11 lbs !

 

My fear is that they'll just keep growing and decimate the tench fishing, maybe i'm worrying for nothing.

[Sportsman]

I don't think that you are worrying for nothing. !2 cats in 2 acres means that anything they can get into their mouths is under threat. I don't think that they are likely to improve the tench fishing. A friend of mine has 4 cats in a 12 acre carp lake and he has caught them when they have regurgitated double figure carp.

[philocalist]

I'd agree with Sportsman - a 2 acre water is not awfully large to be housing a dozen wels. Think of it in these terms; the wels is a peak predator in any water in which it exists, and they are capable of growing to a considerable size. Even at 'just' eleven pounds in weight, they will have a gob like a bucket and anything edible will find it's way in there at some point, whether that be tench or any other fish - and as the wels gets bigger, the bigger specimens of other sprecies will become snacks too.

Put another way; if you had a dozen decent sized pike in a 2 acre water, what else would you realistically expect to survive in there over time, assuming that the pike remain fit and healthy, and continue doing what nature intended?

 

You say that the cats were an illegal introduction a few years back; if the EA get wind, they will want / expect them to be removed and may well enforce that path (unless they act differently local to you), compared to our local guys?

[Phone]

Tigger,

 

The pond doesn't have a snowball's chance in he!!. It is likely half the catfish are already starving or dead but 6 will finish the job.

 

Phone

[gozzer]

I also don't think you are worrying over nothing Ian. If they were introduced illegally, then reporting it to the EA is one thing you can do, but they will charge the owners of the water for catching and disposing of them.

Some idiot introduced them into a water I fished, The owners asked us to kill any we caught, we did just that. and I've not heard of any caught in the last few years.

 

John.

[Ken L]

Sounds like a great idea.

Then it stops being a great idea.

Then the same sort of moron that put them in the pond dumps them in the local river.

[Christian T]

There's a 1acre-ish club water near me with about half a dozen cats in it. They went in a few years ago, I'm not completely sure of the size but think about 7-10lbs. Some of them are over 40lbs now. Apparently there are/were tench in there. I've never caught one. There's still lots of carp between 2-5lbs that the cats are presumably enjoying. I'd imagine they saw off the the bulk of the tench.

[Tigger]

The club that has taken over the pool asked the EA for a licence to keep them, which was granted ! To be honest i'm amazed the EA granted the licence, especially with them being stocked illegally and with there being a small outlet / overflow that goes into the field drains.

I've nothing against people putting them into purpose built waters for people who want to fish for exotic species and where there's no chance of them being washed into rivers etc in a flood.

IMO to allow them to destroy an already established water is criminal and i'm quite miffed about it to say the least.

[Peter M]

Its not just the size in per acre that is important but also how deep it is. I fish a lake that has a number of Cats to 50 pounds. the lake also has pike and large perch as well as swarms and i mean swarms of small roach. it also holds a reasonable head of carp to 30 pounds. The lake is just over 3 acres but has a depth of 27 feet in places. its very clear and weedy. I have often thought that when the Cats are on the prowl the carp get very spooky and sit in the weeds in the margins. If fact it is rare to catch carp in the deeper water and this maybe due to the fact that is where the Cats mostly are. Having said that in the winter the carp behavior does not change even though the cats are far less active. There are a few tench and large bream in the lake and i have seen them as well as seen the accidental capture by carp anglers. I don't know if the presence of Cats is of detriment to other species in other lakes but i have not seen any evidence of it myself from this one lake.

[Phone]

All,

 

I didn't mention depth because I doubt Tigger even knows. Peter M is, of course correct in that "acre/ft" is really how big a pond is. There is a formula using wels in the predator-prey pond management scenario somewhere in FAO. Since we don't have or want wels I haven't even given it a casual glance.

 

Peter, a "couple" wels is 500% fewer than 10 wels

 

Phone